CHARLOTTE — A Charlotte woman told Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz that she was tricked into paying nearly $2,000 after a man wearing what appeared to be a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department shirt and using fake police lights claimed he was a police officer on Freedom Drive. Police later arrested Jacob Tyler Hutchins and charged him with impersonating a law enforcement officer.
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Yaheema Johenkins said the impersonator who drove a black car put a boot on her truck and that he would not take it off until she paid the $2,000.
“It’s very frightening,” she told Sáenz on Tuesday on the phone. “I feel as though it’s a threat to the community.”
Johenkins parked in a parking lot on Freedom Drive and Ashley Road, washed clothes at a laundromat, and worked out at Planet Fitness.
Hutchins walked up to her when she left the gym and blocked her from getting to her truck, she told Sáenz.
“These were his claims: (He was) law enforcement. He worked for CMPD, and he was contracted to patrol that area. And he stated that there was no truck parking in that area and that he had to boot my truck,” Johenkins said.
His outfit was convincing.
“He (has) a black shirt on, and it has CMPD on it, and it has some type of gold embroidered-like badge,” she said.
Johenkins said she paid him to take the boot off, but felt something wasn’t right and called the police.
The investigation led to Hutchins’ arrest and several charges.
Johenkins hopes it’s a wakeup call for everyone.
“This is a serious offense because anybody could be taken by these people, held against their will by these people, as I was,” she said.
Hutchins remains in jail.
The victim told Sáenz that she works for a trucking company and that they paid the fee.
The employer insisted she call the police.